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THE SILVER ECONOMY

By in Print

In response to one of my articles, Mr. Francis Leonce was spurred to write a brilliant two part series on the agricultural sector. While I have known Mr. Leonce for many years on a casual basis, we never sat down for any length of time to speak. Some weeks ago this unforgettable moment occurred, and we sat for over an hour speaking at a Rituals Café. He recounted his experiences in the agricultural sector over the decades and left me totally stunned that such high quality research work was pursued in St Lucia and someone with such wealth of knowledge was not being used. Mr. Leone presented me with a gift at that meeting, which was a research paper entitled: THE EFFECT OF LOCAL CLIMATE AND SOILS FACTORS ON IRISH POTATO YIELDS IN ST LUCIA.  The document was based on research he did in 1966 to 1967 on looking at reducing the importation of Irish potato. Just the thought that almost 50...

POLITICAL ETHNICITY ?

By in Print

On Tuesday night I listened to a live stream of a political event in Trinidad, where the People’s National Movement was presenting twelve ( 12 ) candidates in the town of Arima. It was of interest to me, as it was in this famous town I was born. With elections within the next 6 weeks, the political temperature has been rising and undoubtedly the rhetoric has also soared. The United National Congress launched a campaign called ‘NORowley’ which is in essence a calculated smear campaign against the political leader of the PNM. I then wondered whether this political tribalism would ever end. With that thought, came an instantaneous mental response as to why was that term coined and used to describe Caribbean Politics, and it dawned on me that the descriptive word was rooted in racism. Whenever we hear ‘tribe’, the first thing that comes to mind is an African who is a cannibal, running...

POLITICAL ETHNICITY?

By in Print

On Tuesday night I listened to a live stream of a political event in Trinidad, where the People’s National Movement was presenting twelve ( 12 ) candidates in the town of Arima. It was of interest to me, as it was in this famous town I was born. With elections within the next 6 weeks, the political temperature has been rising and undoubtedly the rhetoric has also soared. The United National Congress launched a campaign called ‘NORowley’ which is in essence a calculated smear campaign against the political leader of the PNM. I then wondered whether this political tribalism would ever end. With that thought, came an instantaneous mental response as to why was that term coined and used to describe Caribbean Politics, and it dawned on me that the descriptive word was rooted in racism. Whenever we hear ‘tribe’, the first thing that comes to mind is an African who is a cannibal, running...

WASCO – ADHOSIM OR TRUISM PART 3

By in Print

Although I intended to do a two part series, the second shutdown of the John Compton Dam and the reasons proffered left me in utter bewilderment. WASCO has been aware of the growing siltation of the Dam for the last 21 years and only within the last four years has attempted to deal with the situation. WASCO has also been aware of the extremely poor condition of the raw water line for more than 10 years and has however to date not sought an approach to deal with this. For those who are unaware of the operation required to supply water to the North of the island, the following is a very simplistic explanation. When rain falls in the upper catchment of the Millet area, the runoff is collected within the dam. In essence they have blocked a valley and allowed this runoff to collect behind this structure. This raw water storage is then transferred to the Ciceron Water Treatment Facility...

WAS THE SPEAKER RIGHT?

By in Print

The recent incident in the House between Hon. Guy Joseph and the Speaker caught my attention in relation to the very interesting issue of Contract Law. The sub-plot should not be lost on the engineering fraternity as the Speaker placed his legal hat on and started a very interesting discourse on liability under the Civil Code. The legal prowess of Peter Foster is well known, and thus his comment in response to the Member of the House was based on his understanding of the Civil Code Article 1558. All contractors in Saint Lucia are of the opinion that the issuance of the Final Certificate after the Defect Liability/Notification Period relieves the contractor from all further liability of defects. In the specific matter, Hon. Guy Joseph was making the point that the recently awarded contract had an unusual clause that removed the defects notification period. It is important to clarify the...